Today’s interviewee is Wayne County coach Jaybo Shaw, whose team defeated then-No. 3 Appling County of Class 2A with a pair of goal line stands in a 7-0 victory Friday night. In Shaw’s first season as coach, Wayne County is 2-1 after finishing 0-9 in 2021. Shaw is best known as a coach for his time at Rabun County, where his teams were 35-5 in three seasons, though he’s familiar to south Georgia as a former Georgia Southern quarterback.
1. What kind of game was it Friday? “It was a defensive battle obviously with that score, but it was two teams just slugging it out. I thought both played extremely hard. The goal line stands we think were critical. On the first one right before halftime, Appling was right around the 5, and we were able to keep them out. And then they got the ball back in the fourth quarter with around two and a half or three minutes left, and they were putting together a drive. It was the same situation, a first-and-goal around the 5 or 6. It was four plays of our guys playing extremely hard with great effort and bowing up. Our inside linebacker, Matt Fuller, made a huge play on second or third down. He had 17 total tackles. On fourth-and-goal, they tried to run a little outside zone play. Our defensive end, Quenucy Herrera, refused to be blocked and stood up the runner and held him up for the rest of the guys to get there, and it was a gang tackle.”
2. Your Rabun County teams averaged 45.8 points per game, so an old-fashioned 7-0 score looks a bit strange. Are you running the same style offense? “This is the first [7-0 score] in my short career. We have the same belief that we had at Rabun County. We’re in the shotgun, and we want to play fast and get guys in space and be explosive, but there’s a steep learning curve from what they did last year on offense. We’re learning every week, and we haven’t put it together on offense yet. We’ve got a freshman quarterback, and when we play teams like Appling County, they hang their hat on playing really good defense, and it turned into ‘don’t put your defense in a bad spot.’ We’ve got four running backs we feel really good about, so we run the ball more than we did at Rabun. We play to our strengths.”
3. What’s been the reception to how your season has begun? “No. 1, our kids are continuing to buy into what we’re trying to establish and stand for and how to go about business every day. A win like Friday solidifies our guys’ seeing success and that the process is working. This is my first time being part of the Wayne-Appling rivalry with it being bordering counties. It was an electric atmosphere with two good football teams battling it out. Overall, there’s a buzz in our community and school, and anything that happens is a positive thing. We have to realize that we’re still nowhere near where we need to be, but we’re on the right track if we keep believing.”
4. Your move to Wayne County was one of the bigger offseason stories. What was behind your decision to take the job? “I’d always kept my eye on this part of the state, southeast Georgia, from my time in Statesboro at Georgia Southern. It was time for a new challenge. I first saw Wayne last year when I was at Rabun and we were playing Pierce County. We were breaking down film of Pierce, and I thought Wayne had great potential as far as home-grown talent even though they struggled last year. And it was a one-high-school county, and there aren’t many of those anymore. Everybody is a Yellow Jacket here. I’m very thankful to be able to get this job and be part of a community where football and athletics in general are extremely important.”
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